Plain answers to your most common how-to, what is & why questions
Sometimes you just want a simple and quick answer rather than a 30-minute lecture on “it depends.” On this page, I give you plain answers to your most common copywriting, marketing, and brand strategy questions.
The questions below were the most commonly asked questions according to real Google user search data as pulled from one of my favorite tools, Answer the Public.
copywriting
Are copywriting courses worth it?
There are many copywriting courses out there promising to teach you valuable skills. Before signing up, you’ll want to assess a couple of things. First, how expensive is this course, and based on my income projections, how long will it take me to make up that amount? Second, what is the opportunity cost? What will you be giving up in terms of time and money by enrolling in the course? Finally, are there any additional benefits provided, such as networking opportunities or a private community? These may prove valuable as you begin to build up referrals.
What are copywriting skills?
This can vary by industry and the format of writing, but in general, successful copywriters will need a firm grasp on the language, the ability to distill an idea down to its simplest form, and a knack for telling a compelling story.
Additionally, it helps to know how to research, the basics of grammar, and you’ll most likely need some basic technical skills - such as the use of collaborative documents, screen sharing, and how to input copy into wireframes or design software.
What are copywriting jobs?
Copywriting is a job all by itself, and yes, it is possible to just be a copywriter. Search for “writer” or “copywriter” on any job board and you’ll often find many opportunities.
The difference in the job will often be based on the industry and the format of what you’ll be writing (advertisements, webpages, articles, etc.).
What are copywriting services?
Copywriters often bundle multiple services together in order to provide more value to the client. Here are a few of the more common ones: editing, proofreading, content strategy, design, wireframing, editorial direction, and keyword research.
What are copywriting principles?
Everyone has their own guiding formula, often with a clever acronym, but here are a few general principles: simple is usually better, shorter is often better but not always, write with a single person in mind, iterate again and again, revise again and again, clearly define the purpose of the writing before you begin, welcome feedback and don’t get defensive, lastly, remember that you’re not the audience.
What are copywriting benefits?
While all people can write, most are not good at it. Copywriters are professional communicators. They will help you distill a message, find the most persuasive version of it and write in a way that actually says what you want it to say. On top of that, it frees you and your team up to focus on other parts of your business. Copywriters will go faster and write better than you can. These are a few of the benefits. Plus, they’re often fun to be around.
What are copywriting degrees? Do you need a degree to become a copywriter?
You DO NOT need a degree to become a copywriter. But you do need to know how to do the work. Courses and certifications can help with this, but there are also other ways. More important than a degree is practice and repetition. You must find time and ways to actually write over and over again.
Can copywriting make you rich?
Yes. It is possible, and common, to make a liveable wage as a copywriter. Some become specialists and build a significant reputation enough to become wealthy. Others will leverage their experience to write courses and sell books - thus increasing their earnings.
Can anyone learn copywriting? How do you learn it? Where can you go to learn it for free?
Yes, anyone can learn copywriting, and there are many online communities, courses, and books out there to teach copywriting. But, more than advice, you need practice. Here is one free community that gives you an opportunity to practice writing twice a week.
There is no substitute for practice and repetition.
Can I do copywriting?
I don’t know, can you? It’s more of a personal question that you need to answer for yourself than one you can answer through a generic Google search. It is hard, takes courage, many hours of repetition and practice, lots of setbacks, deadends a-plenty, but it is possible. Are you able to see it through to the end?
How does copywriting work?
Copywriters typically work under the direction of a marketing manager, editor or creative director. They are given a topic or concept, along with the requirements of the writing. These requirements often include word counts, audience targets, a timeline, and the format that the writing will appear in.
From there, the copywriter may ask questions, do research, and present multiple drafts to a review team. Through these rounds of edits, the writing is refined and then handed off to a designer, developer, or someone who will publish and distribute.
How does copywriting help businesses?
One, it frees up the time of other members of the team. Two, it makes the messaging more compelling and persuasive, leading to better results, such as more sales, retention, awareness, etc. Three, copywriters often ask hard questions that force the business to clarify their audience, mission, and strategy. The answers to these questions provide focus for the rest of the company.
How do copywriters earn money?
Copywriters earn money either as a full-time employee or as a freelance contractor. As a freelance contractor, you may write for yourself and sell your work, or you may write for clients, agencies, and publications. It’s possible and common to make a decent living wage as a copywriter.
How do I get started as a copywriter?
Begin writing, over and over again. There is no substitute for writing and repetition. Start to refine your voice and your ability to distill thoughts and ideas down to their simplest form. Experiment in multiple formats and begin to share your work with an audience. Get their feedback and make adjustments as needed. Start to publish your work and build up a portfolio. Once you have a presentable portfolio of writing, begin to send this out to agencies, companies, or recruiters. Land your first job (it will most likely be entry-level) and put your head down and write your best every single day. Eventually, more opportunities will come.
Copywriting how much to charge?
There are typically three ways to charge for freelance copywriting:
Hourly. A good option for quick projects that will take 20 hours or less to complete. Expect a range somewhere between $25-$130/hr, depending on the specifics and the experience level of the writer.
Flat Project Rate. This works well when the project may last over several weeks, involve multiple team members, or maybe there will be meetings involved. Rather than charge for every minute of the writer’s time, set a flat rate based on your budget and the value of the work.
Monthly Retainer. For clients who like the idea of fixed costs and on-demand service, a flat monthly retainer is a good option. In these situations, the writer is usually working with the client for a minimum of 3 months and becomes integrated into their team’s systems: project management, communication, file storage, etc. They may even attend weekly meetings and start to feel like an extension of your team for a period of time. I’ve seen retainers as low as $500 and as high as $20,000.
What copywriting means and what does a copywriter do?
Copywriting means someone who is writing under very specific instruction and often for the purpose of marketing a product or service. They are often bound by character count limits and must take into account audience personas, user experience (UX) best practices, and the principles of brand strategy and demand generation.
A copywriter ultimately writes, but can also do things like edit, provide creative direction, wireframe, publish, distribute, lead workshops, develop personas, and do research.
What copywriting is not.
Copywriting is not journalism or content marketing. It is not $/per word blog post articles. It is not PR or sales. It’s not the same as business development, communications, or technical writing. Most writers are not copywriters. Most marketers are not copywriters. And vice versa, many copywriters are not the best marketers.
Is copywriting dead?
I hope not. I make a full-time living doing it. Much has been made about the rise of AI writing and there are now machine learning tools that can produce copy on-demand. However, these are cheap substitutes and it’s been proven that AI cannot replicate human empathy. Because of this fact alone, copywriting will not die.
Who needs copywriting?
Perhaps you mean what are the signs that you need a copywriter? Copywriters help when you are under a deadline, need to scale, are stuck at a certain conversion rate but can’t get past it, continue to have confused customers, or are just not sure how to say what is that you do and why it matters. These are a few of the reasons you need copywriting.
Who buys copywriting?
Individual authors, publishing companies, creative marketing agencies, advertisers, marketing teams, Fortune 500 companies, and just about everything in-between. Copywriters are an essential component of any marketing or advertising team and it’s one of the roles that is easiest to outsource to freelance talent.
What is required to be a copywriter?
The ability to write, listen, understand, distill, take feedback, iterate, revise, think creatively, tell a story, and not get frustrated by a few setbacks. It’s a good sign when you get into a sense of flow every time you sit down to write. Few people find flow in this place.
Why copywriting is important.
Because there are people who want to hear what you have to say. However, poor word choice, clunky sentences, insensitive language, corporate jargon, and dense information gets in the way. Copywriting is important because it removes the obstacles and helps you tell your most simple, persuasive, and compelling story.
Why copywriting is the best job.
For those who love to write, solve impossible challenges, and weave creativity into everything they do - copywriting is the absolute best job. If you are one of the few people who finds a sense of flow when you sit down to write - losing hours once you put pencil to paper - then copywriting may be the best job for you.
Why copywriting is important in designing a project.
Creative projects often get stuck at this question, “Which comes first - design or copy?” And then designers wait for the copy while copywriters wait for the design. A great copywriter helps navigate this bottleneck by using content models, being able to do basic wireframing, and/or helping the creative team to agree on the purpose and priorities of the project.
Why copywriting is important in an advertisement.
It’s possible to get caught up in the excitement of the wrong things. Gorgeous design, amazing music, a great offer - but none of it matters if it doesn’t resonate with the audience and compel them in the right ways. Copywriting helps to keep the advertisement focused and staying true to the most important concept. Don’t skimp on copywriting when creating advertisements.
Will copywriting be automated?
Some companies are betting on this, especially with the rise of AI and machine learning. There are already tools out there that will automatically produce potential headlines and topic ideas. So in that way, copywriting is already automated and becoming more so. However, none of the machine learning languages have yet to master human empathy (and I don’t believe they ever will). For this reason alone, copywriting will never be completely automated.
How much can you actually make from copywriting?
Depends on how you charge. Writing per word it’s hard for most writers to get above $1/word. This limits your earning potential. Once you move to project and retainer-based rates, it becomes easier to grow your monthly revenue. It’s not uncommon to write an ebook for $1,500 or support a marketing team in a freelance copywriter capacity for a $4,000/month retainer.
Copywriting for beginners, social media, recruiters, websites, charities, dummies, seo
One of the myths of copywriting is that you need to have experience in a certain industry or specific format to be able to write well in that project. So, clients will go searching for “copywriting for charities” and other hyper-niche terms. And while you will find writers who specialize, often what happens is that writer is following the standard practices of your industry and what they will produce is good, but it also looks, sounds, and feels like everyone else. Hiring a copywriter outside of the industry can expose new ideas and bring a fresh perspective. This can be very helpful.
Copywriting is a form of which marketing?
I believe it stands in its own category. If you needed to put it into an existing bucket, you would want to label it according to the output. If the copywriter is writing for digital - digital marketing. If they are writing for product - product marketing. If they are writing for customers - customer marketing.
Copywriting is hard
Correct. And even in using the word “correct” I second guess, maybe I should have simplified and just said “Yes”. Or maybe I go less formal and say “Yep.” Or I could have affirmed you better - “You are right, copywriting is hard.” There are so many options, word choices, underlying sentiment, cultural references, and personal opinions. Copywriters must navigate all of this with every line that they write.
Copywriting (jobs, courses, services, companies, agency, internships, seminars) near me
Copywriting is one skill that can easily be done from a distance. Many copywriters are remote freelancers and are used to working with you without being in person. It’s rare to NEED to have a copywriter in person for a project, and when it does happen, often the writer can join in-person initially or at key milestones and then work remotely after that.
Copywriting to make money (and more money), including selling books, increasing sales, selling products
Yes. This is often the main purpose of copywriting. And in order to effectively sell through copy you’ll need to establish a few things:
Claim - This is what we believe and why we do what we do.
Credibility - This is why you should believe us too, we are trustworthy and we can actually deliver on the promise.
Clarity - This is exactly what we’re offering and why it matters to you. There’s nothing extra, no jargon, just a simple and persuasive message.
Copywriting vs journalism
Journalists can make some of the best copywriters because they are used to the intense processes of researching, editing, and tight timelines. However, journalists and copywriters are not the same thing. Journalists usually try to write free from bias and the motivation to sell. Copywriters often write with the main purpose of sales and convincing a person of a belief or truth - heavily biased. While there is a lot of overlap in the skillsets, they are very different professions and I believe both have immense respect for the other.
content marketing
Are Content Marketing And Content Strategy The Same?
Content marketing is a practice, while content strategy is a direction. Or, put another way - content marketing is often an aspect of a content strategy and can be an execution of that strategy. Typically using the word ‘strategy’ implies a higher-level overview, vision, and purpose (as aligned to business objectives). Content marketing on the other hand can be a simple campaign or tactic, not necessarily tied to a strategy (but hopefully informed by it).
Is Content Marketing Dead
No. But some of the commonly held practices are becoming outdated, either because of technological advances or changing customer preferences. What are these practices? Retargeting pixels, gated content, maximizing solely for the cheapest cost per lead, and bait and switch offers that appear to be educational but lead to a high-pressure sales follow-up.
Is Content Marketing Worth It
It can be but often does not feel like it in the short term. The fact is, most companies do not have the patience for true content marketing. They expect and feel that they need leads now, customers now, revenue now - whereas content marketing offers value as a relationship is built, trust established and demand created. The question of ‘worth it’ must be answered in the context of your organization’s culture and specific business needs.
Is Content Marketing Effective
Yes, it can be. But it depends on how you measure effectiveness. Many of the mistakes in content marketing happen because there is no clear and agreed-upon definition of success. This causes a mismatch of expectations, either in how long it will take for revenue to come or how heavily the content marketing will influence net new customer growth.
Is Content Marketing Important
Do your customers seek information or education on the topic that your company is an expert in? If so, content marketing is most likely important. Content marketing allows you to be the one who answers their questions in advance of them being ready to make a purchasing decision. This is helpful and offers real value, but also helps to build a relationship and shape their view of the solution to be in line with the way your product solves for it.
Is Content Marketing The Best
Is content marketing the best marketing tactic and should it always be used on every marketing team? No. Instead, think about it this way - who are the potential customers, what are the buying stages they go through, what is their lifetime value to us, how long is an average sales cycle, what resources do we have at our disposal, what is our competition (what do our prospects use now instead of our solution), and how quickly do we need to see results? Once you answer these questions, you may find that content marketing is the best, but you should not just assume that it is until you’ve put thought into the strategy.
Is Content Marketing Videos
It can be. Videos are a popular format for consuming content now, thanks to the rise of YouTube, smartphones, internet speeds, and cultural trends such as cord-cutting and internet celebrities. High video quality is also no longer a must-have either. Candid videos can be just as powerful at spreading thought leadership, building an audience, and educating prospects in an informal way.
How Can Content Marketing Help A Business
There are three ways to think about your audience - owned, earned, and paid. Owned is any channel you completely control (email list), earned is any organic mentions (customer social media post, PR), and paid is any promoted distribution (Facebook ads). Content marketing helps a business by moving the audience from paid to both earned and owned. Over time, this increases word-of-mouth reach and decreases acquisition costs.
What Can Content Marketing Be Used For
Content marketing is simply a tactic. You will need to assign a purpose for the tactic. It may be to raise general awareness, organic search traffic, decrease sales cycle length, increase conversion rates, leverage partnerships for referrals, build an email list, or many other things. Your content strategy will define the purpose of content marketing and it’s important to do this before you create or distribute any content.
Can You Do Content Marketing
Content marketing is a skill that anyone can learn. There is a lot of variety in the parts of the content marketing process - writing, editing, filming, developing, design, distribution, strategy, and more. The hardest part about “doing” content marketing is not the tactical skill but rather the application of those skills in a specific business situation to achieve targeted business results. This is where the gap exists for most organizations that are “doing all the right things” but not getting the results they need.
Content Marketing Can Take The Form Of
Blog posts both short and long-form, social media, email, ads both digital and print, books both print and digital (ebooks), case studies, webinars, landing pages, funnels, videos, audio, posters, quizzes, calculators, checklists…should I keep going?
How To Start Content Marketing Business
Step one - learn content marketing as you build up a portfolio. Step two - specialize in something, usually either a skill or industry. Step three - begin to gather others around this specialty. Others who practice it, clients who would benefit from it, complementary skillsets, etc. Step four - determine your business structure and your pricing model. Step five - pitch your services as you continue to refine your pitch. Step six - win a project, do the work and receive your first content marketing business payment. Congratulations!
How To Improve Marketing In A Business
Many marketing problems stem from the way marketing is perceived within the organization. How is it defined, valued, and resourced? Also, what is considered “good marketing” by the executives? And finally, how is the success of marketing measured? Getting clarity on these questions will be your first step to improving marketing. Next, it’s building a marketing team or hiring an agency that shares your perceptions about marketing. This way you can be aligned on expectations.
Marketing is an opinion-based field and there are many ways to achieve similar results. Rather than fight about the “best way” or how to “improve” marketing, it’s often better to bring in a team that already shares your values.
How To Improve Content Marketing
Start by finding the gaps. This is often done by evaluating the funnel and the conversion rates at each stage of the journey. If you have a complicated marketing program, just pick one initiative, offer or channel to focus on. Map this out and visualize the journey if possible to make it easy for others to follow along with your findings. Once you’ve found a key drop-off point (with a lower conversion rate than other points), work to optimize it.
Secondly, you may need to go back to the drawing board with your customer understanding. Interview some customers and prospects using qualitative methods. Learn more about their context, bias, frustrations, hopes, and definitions of progress. Synthesize the findings and look for content marketing opportunities in the trends.
How Content Marketing Works
Why do you trust who you trust? How do you make buying decisions? Where do you go to do your research that informs your worldview and drives your behavior? Content marketing works because it answers all of the above questions for potential customers of your business. Content marketing informs, builds trust, guides buying decisions, shapes worldviews, and more. It’s an incredibly powerful practice, especially when combined with large distribution budgets that utilize highly precise targeting algorithms. The real question is not how content marketing works or does it work, but rather since it works so well, what ethical and moral responsibilities do we as marketers have as a result?
How Content Marketing Drives Sales
Content marketing drives sales in a number of ways, but there are four primary categories that drive revenue: net new customer acquisition (brand new revenue), prospect conversion (improving the speed or rate at which known leads become customers), customer retention (remaining a customer), and customer adoption (expanding into more spending)
How Content Marketing Will Change In 2021
Ask me in 2022! A few guesses for now: less influencer marketing, more social responsibility efforts, more video content, increase in experimentation with new tech like AI, VR, and digital currencies.
How Content Marketing Helps Seo
SEO means search engine optimization and it’s an influencing aspect of increased organic search traffic. Content marketing helps to increase organic search traffic by answering more questions that searchers have. Those answers may come in the form of a blog post, email series, ebook, webinar, YouTube video, podcast, etc. Answering questions and educating the audience are key aspects of content marketing and they go hand-in-hand with SEO.
How Content Marketing Is Changing The Game
The game is already changed. It’s also in the midst of changing again. And it will change after that. Stop looking for silver bullets in marketing or end-all-be-all approaches. Seek instead to understand your customer and care deeply about helping them find progress.
What Content Marketing Is
Content marketing is the practice (or tactic) of educating, informing, or entertaining through content, usually with a specific business purpose in mind. Each piece of content is therefore attached to an objective. These objectives often include customer types, funnel stages, keywords, and success measurements.
What Content Marketing Should Be
Helpful, empathic, and full of restraint.
What Content Marketing Is Not
Invasive, the same thing as sales, and for everyone.
When Did Content Marketing Start
While I’m sure there are earlier examples, content marketing in recent history can be traced back to the 1932 Maxwell House Haggadah (look it up). It was designed to be a resource for those celebrating Passover and grew to become widely accepted as the most popular Haggadah among American Jews (50 million copies in print).
When Did Content Marketing Become Popular
Content marketing became popular thanks to both a company selling content marketing software (Hubspot) and the rise of access to information via the internet (broadband speeds and mobile phones).
Why Content Marketing Is Important For B2B
Content marketing tends to work especially well for businesses who are selling to other businesses for several reasons: the complexity of the sale, a longer sales cycle, multiple stakeholders involved in the purchase, the potentially serious implications of a wrong purchase, and the higher need for trust and credibility. Content marketing can help to overcome these obstacles, build trust, and stay in touch with prospects in a helpful and empathetic way through a long sales cycle.
brand strategy
What is a brand strategy?
A brand strategy is the thoughtful planning of a company’s perception and presentation, ideally based on cultural, consumer, and category research. It involves an examination of all external touchpoints as well as the application of brand values across internal areas. Most importantly, it should be true and not contrived.
What are some of the components of a brand strategy?
When putting together a brand strategy, I consider three components: category & competition, customer & culture, and company & claim. A brief overview of each:
Category & competition:
Defined brand arena
Positioning of competition
Ownable opportunities, gaps
Customer & culture:
Wants, needs, motivations, frustrations
Context & bias
Cultural trends & forces
Company & claim:
Mission, vision, manifesto
Internal culture
Provable product claims
Unique characteristics
What goes into branding?
Branding is simply the expression of the brand strategy. Typical expressions include things like logo, packaging, positioning, messaging, website, and photography. Each of these requires its own thoughtful approach. I’ll give a few details to each below.
What is a logo?
The logo is an instantly recognizable symbol of what you do and why it’s important to your customers. High-impact logos are more than just your name and a typeface. Logos have the power to become a banner under which your product, service, and customers can unite.
When do you need to update your logo?
The current logo does not express who you are
The logo does not scale correctly to small and extremely large
When the company is expanding into new markets or adding new products
To signify that positive movement is happening
What is positioning & messaging?
Positioning is the space your brand owns in your customer’s mind. Well-positioned products balance their competitive advantage and personality with the needs of the customer (p.s. very few companies know their UVP or personality). While it’s debatable now whether true “unique value propositions” exist anymore, well-written messaging coming from a clearly laid out strategy (including the desired positioning) still stands out and makes a difference.
When is it especially important to invest in your positioning & messaging?
Trouble acquiring new customers because they don’t understand what you do or how you’re different
Limited time to capture the customer’s attention and get them to make a purchasing decision
Commodity industries where all competitors offer a similar product
What is market research?
Market research is the practice of uncovering what, when, where, and how customers buy. Truly understanding their decision-making process, to the point of emphathy, will allow you to grow awareness, keep attention, and build loyalty.
When do you need market research?
Increased competition and a crowded marketplace
Facing larger, more established competitors
To break long-standing customer habits and behaviors
Products/services not gaining enough market share
What is packaging?
Packaging is often the first tangible experience a customer has with your brand. It will convey value propositions, quality, and brand in the absence of other information. In other words—customers will make lasting assumptions about your product based on your packaging. Don’t believe me? Just browse the wine aisle.
Why do you need good packaging?
Capture the attention of a busy & distracted customer
Quickly communicate value propositions & brand promise
Establish credibility
Reverse lagging sales & stand out from the crowd
What is brand photography?
Customers make assumptions about your products/services based on the information you give them online. They can’t hold the tangible product in their hands so they will use other criteria to judge the quality, with photography being one of the most influential. Tap into powerful emotions and instantly convey credibility by investing in top-notch imagery.
When do you need brand photography?
Convey a high level of quality (very important in the food industry)
Visually tell the brand story
Evoke an emotion that authentically connects with the consumer
What is a website (from a brand standpoint)?
Brand strategy considers all touchpoints in the customer journey, and the website is often a big one. Websites are many things: transactional, informational, and educational; but more than anything, a website is experience-driven. Simply having a website isn’t enough anymore. Your users now have higher expectations than the bare minimum. Do you know what they are? Have you tested for user experience? Do you know where the website fits into your sales funnel? The highest converting sites are built from the user up, meaning no line of code is touched until the user journey is dialed in.
When do you need to consider updating your website?
There may be some technical reasons to update your site (speed, mobile responsiveness, security), but from a brand standpoint, there are three reasons to update. One, you’re no longer meeting user needs, e.g. hard to find info & get where they need to go. Two, your current site doesn’t reflect your true product quality or expertise. Three, when you’re facing new competition or looking to scale your company